A collection of various GIS related links, information and other GIS blogs.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Welcome to the ESRI UC Blog Welcome to the ESRI User Conference Blog, created to bring the conference experience online. The ESRI User Conference will bring some 15,000 GIS users to San Diego August 7-11 to explore, together, how GIS can better serve organizations and our communities. This is the largest GIS event in the world, and I encourage you to attend if you haven’t already planned to do so. During the conference week, we will bring you highlights of the many events going on, such as the Plenary Session and Map Gallery. We invite you to submit comments and post entries to share your conference experiences with fellow attendees and others who want to learn more about the conference. To submit a post, send an e-mail to UCblog@esri.com. Or, if you read a blog that interests you, click the comment link at the end of the entry to share your thoughts on the subject.
This exchange of information is what the ESRI community is all about. We move forward together, sharing knowledge, sharing stories, and communicating our world. Have a great conference.
Sincerely,Jack Dangermond, ESRI President

Monday, June 19, 2006

Strong Angel III: Integrated Disaster Response Demonstration: "THE SCENARIO A Complex Contingency: A lethal and highly-contagious virus gradually begins to spread around the globe. Infection rates are high, deaths are frequent, and no vaccine is available. Cities all over the world fall under quarantine. Emergency services and medical centers are stressed and national government agencies, affected just as severely as the cities themselves, cannot provide assistance. And then the situation goes from fragile to brittle. A terrorist cell, having long waited for such an opportunity, launches a wave of successful cyber attacks in a medium size city somewhere in the developed world, bringing down grid power, Internet access, land and cellular telephones. Other, more subtle, attacks follow, and it's difficult to sort out the mess. If there were ever a time to work effectively together, this would be it. Recognizing that a comparable scenario might one day unfold in real life, a diverse group of disaster responders, technologists, and community leaders will assemble in San Diego in August of 2006 for an event designed to simulate a truly complex disaster. Over the course of seven days, on the campus of San Diego State University and in the streets of the city, we will explore techniques and technologies for responding effectively when the response itself must adapt to cascading losses. By demonstrating what is possible through public and private-sector partnerships within a community, we intend to develop approaches to cultivating local resilience that may be useful for any city, here or abroad."